


You Found Me

by fullmetalscully



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Family Reunions, Original Character(s), Reunions, Single Parents, single mother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 13:35:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18829705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullmetalscully/pseuds/fullmetalscully
Summary: Isla was kicked out of her home for deciding to keep her child. Years later, she discovers someone from her past she'd never expected to see again.





	You Found Me

**Author's Note:**

> this was something i wrote in 2013 and thought i might put it to good use rather than have it sitting and gathering dust in a folder on my computer lmao i haven't changed anything, just did a quick review for any spelling and grammar mistakes
> 
> funnily enough this was the first thing i ever completed which, back in the day, was a big thing for me!
> 
> hope you enjoy!

As the alarm buzzed loudly right into my ear I sighed as I was roused from my much needed sleep. I cracked open an eye to see that the time was 6:30am. I’d forgotten to reset my alarm the day before. Today I had the late shift. I would’ve had to get up early anyway and, as soon as I thought it, my daughter started wailing from the next room. I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled half-asleep into her room. She was sitting up in her crib, crying for Scotland, with large, fat tears running down her cheeks.

“Shh, baby. Mummy’s here,” I tried to soothe her as I lifted her into my arms. I hugged her close and rubbed her back to try and calm her down. Eventually, she quietened, and her cries turned into sniffles.

“What’s wrong Anna?” I asked her worriedly. It was unlike her to start screaming in the morning. It was unlike her to start screaming, full stop. She was a quiet child and she always had been. She was three years old now and this outburst was unexpected and worrying to her mother.

“Monsta,” she mumbled as she rubbed the tears from her eyes. I picked up a tissue and gently wiped them away for her. “Makin’ scary noise.” I guessed that the sound of the alarm buzzer going off fuelled her fear so she thought the shadow was a monster.

“Where was the monster?” Anna pointed over to the wall which was opposite her bed. There was a faint shadow on it, and I looked around to see what was causing it. There was a small dragonfly decoration which hung from the lampshade in her room. The faint morning light shone through the curtains and cast a large shadow across the wall.

I reached up and plucked the dragonfly from the lampshade and held it in front of her. I moved it up and down so the wings flapped and it looked like it was flying.

“There wasn’t a monster. It was this, see?” She eyed it warily as I moved it on front of her. She reached out hesitantly to touch it. “It was just a toy.”

“Toy,” Anna repeated.

“That’s right. It won’t hurt you, okay?” Anna nodded but stilled looked uncertain. “Come on, let’s go and get breakfast.” I ended up having to carry her to the kitchen. I was going to let her walk, but she started to cling on to my leg, reaching up to me when I put her down.

My house was small, but it was cosy. It was one floor and basically all in one room. The living room was large enough to host two couches, a coffee table and my TV. Behind the couch that faced the TV there was a breakfast bar which held cupboards underneath. I had bought a few stools to place around it and that was where we eat as there was no room for a table. The kitchen was small and to the left there was the bathroom, which was quite large, considering the size of the house. It had two bedrooms, my one was larger than Anna’s, and that was all I needed. I didn’t get a lot of company. A few friends from work came round for a girl’s night and my sisters and brother popped in from time to time. My parents never came round.

They didn’t support my decision to keep Anna. Well, my mother didn’t. My father wasn’t happy, but he didn’t fight me on it. They were very old fashioned and very upper class which caused my mother to see her birth as a shame on our family, since I’d only just turned twenty when I found out I was expecting.

I wasn’t married. Anna’s father, Connor, was a friend of the family’s son. We had gone out for a drink one night, due to both our mother’s interfering in our lives. They were pushing us to get together so the two families could join together, which neither of us wanted. We decided to go out just to get them off our backs and we ended up having a good time.

And getting very drunk.

I woke up the next morning and found him in my bed. I had no idea what had happened. I couldn’t remember.

A few weeks later I found out I was pregnant and at first I was scared, but then I was happy. I was going to have a baby! I told Connor and he was happy as well. I said he didn’t have to be involved if he didn’t want to be, but he was happy to. We had a blissful few weeks where we got to know each other and we fell in love.

When I’d started to show we decided it would be time to tell our parents. We gathered them together and told them. As the silence stretched on and I noticed the shocked and disappointed expressions on their faces, I started to worry.

“What do you mean, you’re pregnant, Isla?” my mother exclaimed.

“Mother, I’m pregnant. Connor is the father.”

“But that’s preposterous! You cannot be pregnant! You’re only twenty years old for god’s sake!” She ranted for a good few minutes then Connor’s mother joined in and started having a go at him. I got angrier and angrier and couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Mother! You were the one who wanted us to get together in the first place! You forced us together and now you’re angry about the fact that we’re happy and we’re going to have a child?”

“Of course! You’re just a young girl. You have no idea what you’re getting into. We’ll take you to the doctor’s tomorrow and we’ll terminate this pregnancy.”

“No!” I shrieked at her, clutching my hands to my stomach. I heard Connor utter a similar sound at the same time.

“Andrea, don’t you think-” my father started.

“No, Phillip. You _are_ going through with this procedure, Isla. No buts.”

“I won’t let you take my baby away from me!” I screamed. Connor stepped forward but his mother grasped his arm and dragged him out of the room. “Connor, wait!” I called. I started after them but my mother snapped her fingers and a butler stepped forward to restrain me. I struggled and fought my way to the door, but he was too strong. He had a death grip on my arms and they were starting to hurt. I heard Connor shouting back to me, but I couldn’t make it out as the thick doors closed and muffled his voice.

My mother stood and walked over to me. I stood tall and looked her right in the eye defiantly.

“You _will_ go through with the procedure. You _will not_ have this baby, do you hear me? I _won’t_ let you shame this family!”

I stood to my full height so I stood just slightly taller than her. “No. It’s my body and I’ll choose what I want to do with it. I _will_ have this child.”

She slapped my face so hard that I stumbled backwards. The butler behind me even had to take a step back to steady himself. My vision blurred but I refused to let any tears fall.

“You are no longer my daughter,” she hissed. With a nod of her head the butler dragged me out of the house. My things had been packed and they sat on the steps outside the house. My car was also sitting there, ready to go. The butler let me go when we were outside and subtly handed me a key and a slip of paper.

I glanced at the paper and looked up confused, but the man was gone. I read the piece of paper and saw it had an address written on it. I quickly stuffed my things into my small car. When I drove away, I was gripping the steering wheel so hard that my knuckles went white in an attempt to stop myself from crying. As soon as I was out of the grounds I pulled over to the first free space I could find (in Edinburgh they were few and far between) and cried. Sobs wracked my body and I wrapped my arms around myself in an effort to hold myself together. After half an hour I was exhausted and drove to the address, and my new house.

I snapped back into the present when Anna started flicking her cereal around. Her high chair was covered in soggy cereal and she giggled as she flicked another piece onto the counter.

“Anna,” I warned her as I grabbed her spoon and held it still. “Keep the food on your plate honey, okay?” She slapped the counter happily and I took up the role of feeding her myself.

Connor was in my thoughts every week. Every time I heard Anna laugh, it was his laugh. Every time I saw her eyes light up, it was the same way his did. They even had the same eye colour, light blue. I had always thought about going out and looking for him, but I never had the time. I was too busy with work and looking after Anna.

“He probably has his own family now,” I said sadly to Anna as she giggled and smeared food everywhere.

The piece of paper that the butler had given me on that day I drove away from my parents contained an address as well as the details to my bank fund. It was a fund that my grandparents had set up for each of their grandchildren when we were born. There was more than enough money in it to ensure I had enough money for at least a few years.

When Anna was born, I stayed at home all the time. After her first birthday I started looking into jobs in restaurants. While I was pregnant with her I had completed my studies at college and earned a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Professional Cookery. I was accepted as an assistant chef at a small restaurant near to my house. It had a crèche and a soft play area for kids so it meant that I could leave Anna there with them while I worked. It was only part time but as Anna grew older, I was thinking of changing it to full time. I was keeping the rest of the money aside in another account for Anna for when she grew older.

I wiped Anna’s face clean of food and after bathing her I placed her in her playpen and had a shower myself. Afterwards, we both sat on the couch, Anna on my lap. I’d put a children’s programme on for her to keep her entertained. She clapped along with the songs and it made me happy seeing her enjoy herself and hear her laugh. I always enjoyed this time we had together.

Work came around far too quickly. The day had turned out to be hot and sunny, so I donned my sunglasses and placed my bag on Anna’s pram. By the time I reached work I was sweating, and Anna looked flushed and was fussing. I’d finished a bottle of water I picked up from Tesco for the mile walk and so had Anna. It was all uphill so pushing a child in a pram, which also held my bag, made the heat even worse.

The cool air conditioning of the restaurant was a welcome feeling. I manoeuvred over to the crèche which Claire was supervising. Claire was very tall, even taller than me. She stood at six foot two causing her to tower over everyone she talked to. She was extremely friendly though and was great with kids. She grinned as she saw the two of us approaching and greeted us after speaking to a small boy who was sitting on her lap. He nodded and continued colouring in his dinosaur happily.

“Isla!” I was pulled into a bear hug by my friend.

“Hi, Claire,” I laughed.

She kneeled to Anna’s level. “Hello sweetie!” Anna squealed as Claire tickled her feet. I unstrapped her from her pram and lifted her up. She even waved a hello to Claire. My daughter had always got on well with Claire.

“We’ll have great fun today, won’t we sweetie?” Claire asked her.

“Yay!” Anna replied. We both chuckled and I handed her over to my friend. I watched as she was set down and she toddled off in the direction of the soft play area. I smiled as I watched her go and left to start my shift.

Six hours later, I left the kitchen. It was just turning nine o’clock and Anna was out for the count. I took a seat while I was strapping her small, sleeping form into her pram to rest my aching feet. Over time I’d gotten used to standing on my feet for an extended period of time, but it didn’t mean the pain got any easier. I thanked Claire again and we stepped into the cooling evening air.

I’d started daydreaming as I walked, so I never noticed the man walking towards me until I rammed into him with the pram.

“Oh my god! I’m so sorry!” I rushed around to him to see if he was okay. He was clutching his left leg where I’d hit him.

“No, it’s fine. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” he replied.

“Neither was I. Are you okay?” I turned and crouched as I heard Anna starting to cry. The bump had woken her up and she was not happy about it.

“Yeah, I’m... fine...” he trailed off.

“Shh, Anna. It’s okay,” I soothed my daughter. I turned back around and the sight before me caused my heart to leap into my throat.

 _Connor_.

We stood staring at each other for a moment, him looking down, and me, crouched, looking up. I studied him closely. He seemed to be thinner. His face had a haunted look to it with his high cheekbones being more pronounced and his cheeks dipping into his face slightly. He had a beard which was on the shaggy and unkempt side, which was the same with his hair. It was longer than I remembered. His ginger locks were a lot less curly than before. Also, his eyes had lost that spark that was always present when he smiled and laughed. It seemed like we were frozen in time as we drank in the sight of each other.

At the exact same moment we both rose and I was pulled tightly into his arms. We both clung to each other tightly as if we would be pulled apart at any moment. Tears fell silently down my cheeks.

 _He was here_.

Anna’s crying brought us back to the present and I turned quickly to try and quieten her down. I unstrapped her and lifted her into my arms.

“Is that...?”

All he needed was a nod from me. His whole face lit up and it was also as if his whole body had filled with happiness.

“Look Anna,” I whispered to her. “There’s Daddy.”

She was sniffling now and blinked through her tears. I wiped them away for her and she studied the man in front of her. Her face broke into a huge grin and she held out her arms.

I handed her to him and he held her like she was glass, afraid that she might break.

“Hello Anna,” he said softly. I noticed a tear had rolled down his face but he was smiling. “Anna,” he said in wonder then he looked up at me. “You remembered.”

I nodded. “Of course I did.” Before our parents dragged us away from each other we had spoken about what we wanted to call our child. We agreed that he would choose a girl’s name and I would choose a boy’s name. Connor had said Anna as it was a favourite character from a book he had read as a child.

He looked at our daughter in wonder as she gurgled happily up at him and gave him a toothy grin. “Da-da,” she tried out. I watched as his face lit up and more tears fell.

“Yes, honey. Da-da.”

I smiled at the two of them together. This was all I ever wanted. My daughter and her father together, the three of us being a family. I knew that that may not been be possible at this point. For all I knew, he had a family of his own with another woman and they had a son or a daughter. I had no idea. This was not the time to talk about it though. I needed to get Anna out of the cold. I finally became aware of how cold it had gotten.

“Connor, I need to get Anna out of the cold. Are you... Are you free to come back to our house? For a coffee?”

“Yes,” he breathed, looking bewildered at the offer. “I would love that.”

I placed Anna back into her pram.

“Can I push her?” he asked shyly.

“Of course.” I thrust my hands into my pockets as we walked home in silence. There was so much I needed to ask him but I was happy to just walk with him again.

I usher him inside my house he looks around. “It’s not much,” I tell him. “But it’s home.”

“It’s lovely. Very cosy. I love it.” I left Anna’s pram in the small hallway and carried her over to the couch. I motioned for him to sit and he sat next to me, watching our daughter. She was trying to stay awake but failing. Every so often she would open her eyes and look sleepily up at us and then close them again. We watched her in silence as she fell asleep.

“She’s beautiful,” Connor whispered. “She has your hair,” he said as he pushed the hair out of her eyes. I had always thought that. Her brown hair was short, whereas mine was long, but it was also curly, like both her parent’s.

“She has your eyes,” I told him. “And your laugh. She reminded me so much of you sometimes that it hurt.” I stood to take her to bed and Connor followed. Once I put her down I kissed her forehead and whispered goodnight to her. Connor stepped around me and kissed her forehead as well. He spent some time just watching her, unable to look away. Unconsciously he had placed his hand upon my shoulder as we both stood and watched our daughter.

“How are you?” he asked me when we both returned to the couch.

“I’m not too bad.”

“Same here. I’m relieved.”

“Relieved?”

He nodded. “I had no idea what had happened to you after that day at your house. My parents dragged me away to give me a lecture and then when I returned, everyone was gone. I left to look for you. I looked for weeks, but I couldn’t find you. My parents told me to give it up and just get on with my life. They told me... They told me that you’d agreed to the abortion and that you’d left to get away from me,” he said sadly.

“That’s _not_ true, I can assure you!” I was angry. “My mother told me to get out and that I was no longer her daughter. I was cast out. I was given a note with this address and I came here. I drove around everywhere we had been for a week but then college started again. I had no idea what had happened to you either but I needed to finish my studies so that I could get a degree and provide for our daughter when she was born.”

“I’m so sorry about all this Isla. No! Not about our daughter,” he added when he saw the look of hurt on my face. “I love her so much and I’ve only known her for half an hour. I meant about not trying harder to find you.” He stared at his knees for a long time before meeting my eyes again.

“What have you been up to these past few years?” I asked him, breaking the silence.

“Not much. I graduated from university. I’m a qualified lawyer now.”

“That’s great! When did you graduate?”

“Last summer. I also joined a law firm in Edinburgh.”

“Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” He had achieved so much in those past few years. I was extremely happy for him. “I’ve got my own place now. I moved out of my parent’s house soon after that day.” His expression had darkened as he spoke of it. I nodded sadly. He shifted his body round so he was facing me and I followed. He grasped my hands tightly and looked straight into my eyes.

“Isla, now that I’ve found you, I don’t ever want to lose you again. I can live with just being friends, if that’s what you want. If you have someone else in your life I can live with that too, so long as we can still be friends and I can still see my daughter. That’s all I ask.”

“Connor, you don’t need to worry about someone else in my life. Not many guys go for a single mother with a toddler.” I saw his shoulders fall slightly in relief.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.” Our lips met and we kissed. It was gentle and loving. We’d both missed so much together but I was delighted that we had found each other again.

“So what have you been up to?” he asks as we break for air.

“Well, I had a baby.”

He chuckled. “A very beautiful baby.”

“I agree. I completed my college course and I got a job at a small restaurant nearby.”

“Congratulations! That’s great Isla.” We merged into a comfortable silence, enjoying the time we are spending together.

 I had thought that if or when we met again we would have so much to talk about but now that the moment was here I didn’t have a clue. For now I was content to stay in his arms. We had our whole lives ahead of us. We could finally raise our child together and grow old together. My life just took a very positive turn.


End file.
